judgment. Girty’s Indians attacked Logan’s Fort. The supply of water inside the fort was exhausted, and the suffering was intense. After this siege, General Logan decided never again to be subjected to such an extremity. He could not bring the spring to the fort, and it was also difficult to transplant the fort. So he summoned the settlers and proposed a plan to which they agreed. The hours when they were not working in the fields or building new cabins they spent in digging, until a tunnel was made from the stockade to the spring. In succeeding attacks, the General had his granaries and storehouses well supplied with food and ammunition, and it was an easy matter to send a boy with a bucket through the tunnel to the spring for water. This precaution on the part of the General prevented exhaustion during the next attack on Logan’s Fort. The Indians, unable to understand how the settlers in the fort could do so long without water, supposed them to be miraculously defended by the Great Spirit, and never afterward could Girty lead his band to attack Logan’s Fort.

[pg 12]

The settlers at Bryan’s Station, a few miles from Lexington, did not take a similar precaution. During one of the Indian attacks on them the supply of water in the fort became exhausted, and surrender seemed unavoidable. The women of the fort volunteered to go for water, and taking buckets marched down to the spring. The Indians were surprised, superstitious, and panic-stricken, and refused to fire on them. The women filled their buckets and returned in safety to the stockade.

Notwithstanding the bounteous provision made by Nature to supply the needs of the settler in the way of fruits, wild meats, and skins for clothing, life in the settlements was plain in the extreme. Furniture and household utensils were scant and crude, for the most part being of home construction. Salt was one of the greatest needs of the settlers. At first, they made it from the water of the numerous salt licks, each family making its supply by boiling the water in a kettle until the moisture had evaporated, leaving the salt encrusted in the kettle. These kettles were crude, and invariably small. Hence it was more difficult to supply a family with salt than with sugar, which was easily made by boiling down the sap from the maple trees. After awhile, the Virginia authorities sent out a number of large kettles and two expert salt makers, who reported to Captain Boone for service. Boone, with his two experts and thirty other men, left Boonesborough for the Lower Blue Lick Spring, fifty or more miles toward the north. Here they made a camp and set to work to manufacture a stock of salt sufficient to supply the needs of all the settlements for a period of twelve months. From time to time a small party was sent back to the different forts with packhorses laden with salt. On their return, they would bring supplies, parched corn, and perhaps a few of the simple comforts that seemed almost luxuries to the hardy [pg 13]backwoodsmen. Meat constituted the chief article of diet for the workers of the salt factory. It required no small amount to satisfy the appetites of thirty vigorous men. Boone, as the most expert hunter among them, undertook to supply the camp with meat. The task was, to him, a thoroughly congenial one, which we cannot imagine the more civilized task of manufacturing salt to have been.

It was Boone’s custom to go out some miles from camp every morning, returning at the close of the day with as much game as he could carry, and often leaving a quantity at a particular spot to be sent for with a packhorse. One afternoon Boone was making his way toward the salt works after a day of successful hunting, when he suddenly found himself surrounded by a company of Indians. Not having seen a redskin for months, and believing it unlikely that they could be present in large numbers at that time of the year, Boone was not as keenly on the alert as usual. The savages had found Boone’s trail while wandering through the woods. He was taken captive, adopted into the tribe, his hair picked out in Indian fashion, and the war paint added. Boone’s failure to return led the men in the camp to suspect the presence of Indians, and to guess that Boone had fallen captive. The alarm was quickly sent to the surrounding forts. Maj. Harlan, Col. Trigg, Col. Todd, and Boone’s brother led a body of men against the Indians in what proved to be the bloodiest battle recorded in the annals of the territory, and known as the Battle of Blue Licks. In this battle, Boone’s eldest son was slain, and it is said the old man never could refer to the battle without shedding tears. In the midst of the battle, Boone escaped from his captors and rejoined the settlers.

[pg 14]

George Rogers Clark and the Revolution

Among the many men of sterling quality who for various reasons came out to Kentucky, was one stalwart, well-trained, military genius known in history as General George Rogers Clark. His first trip to Kentucky was semi-official, as a representative of the Virginia Legislature, to visit the various forts and settlements and to report progress to the state government. He found the settlers in dire need of powder. Reporting this to the Virginia authorities, he succeeded in securing for the settlers a quantity, which was yet insufficient to defend them against the Indians.

George Rogers Clark

Of Clark’s second appearance in Kentucky, General Ray, who was at that time a boy of sixteen, living at Harrodsburg (or Harrod’s Station as it was then called), gives the following account: “I had come down to where I now live, about four miles from Harrodsburg, to turn some horses on the range. I had killed a small blue-winged duck that was feeding in my spring, and had roasted it nicely by a fire on the brow of the hill. While waiting for the duck to cool, I was startled by the sudden appearance of a fine, soldierly-looking man. ‘How do you do, my little fellow? What is your name? Aren’t you afraid of being in the woods by yourself?’ Answering his inquiries, I invited him to partake of my duck, which he did, without leaving me a bone to pick, his appetite was so keen. Had I known him then as I did afterwards, he would have been welcome to all the game I could have killed. Having devoured my duck, he asked me questions about the settlers, the Indians and the condition of affairs in the locality.” These the boy answered as well as he could, and then ventured to ask [pg 15]the name of his guest. “My name is Clark,” was the response, “and I have come out here to see how you brave fellows are doing in Kentucky, and to lend you a helping hand, if necessary.”